The saying goes, “Idle hands are the devil’s tools”. If that old adage stands true then the Quilting Ladies of Trade Winds are SAINTS!
I’ve been volunteering in the Quilting Room on Monday’s and some Thursday’s and have really enjoyed getting to know the women here in the park.
Every group needs a coordinator, or leader, if you will. These quilting ladies look to Phyllis for direction. I like Phyllis. A lot. She gives me a hard time every chance she gets. We have this great back and forth verbal sparring thing going on and we laugh often.
There’s wonderful group of ladies here who…….
CUT
MATCH
SEW
PAD THE QUILTS FROM BIG BOLTS
TIE
ROLL HEMS
AND SEW IT AGAIN
There is quite the system in place where everyone has their job and knows what they are doing. Then of course you get a newcomer like me or Bunky who don’t know squat when it comes to quilt making.
Bunky loves, loves, loves, to iron! So when something needs pressing Bunky is the go to person for that.
Most of the time she and I work together on rolling and pinning the hems. We’re a good team and she’s taught me how to make mitered corners.
Now I did try sewing the squares of material together…… at Phyllis’ insistence, er,suggestion. It’s been a lot of years since I sat a sewing machine. Back in the days of Home Ec in junior high school I had even made a dress at home on my mom’s sewing machine. That is my experience with sewing. I’m not into sewing and I’ll be the first to admit it. Seams split? Buy a new one. Patches have to be sewn on Bob’s uniforms? Take them to mom. This is why God made tailors and seamstresses and moms!
So because I like Phyllis I agreed to trying the sewing thing for her. My first two pieces of quilting squares had to be ripped apart. They were supposed to be sewn with right sides together. (That means in the case of a printed material, the sides with the boldest colors should be facing each other when sewn) I had one of each facing each other. I finally got that right.
Take notice in the picture below that the solid color pieces of fabric and the printed pieces are opposite of each other.
This is what happened when I did it.
There’s only one thing to say about this. I suck at it.
Let me introduce you to by new best friend.
MS. SEAM RIPPER
No, the sewing part isn’t for me. I’ll stick to rolling hems and pinning them. That’s my niche in the assembly line of quilt making here at Trade Winds.
So where do all the quilts go? Last year the ladies made 429 lap robes and quilts for local nursing homes, a mission in Mexico, one here in Texas, a church (or two) that gives them to the needy, the Salvation Army to give where needed and other places that just don’t come to mind right now.
Just a small sampling of what’s on hand and every week several more completed quilts are added to the stockpile.
These ladies, they do good things. No idle hands here.
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